Whether it makes much of an imprint on Hong Kong and Asia, where the issue is in its infancy, remains to be seen. But it is gaining momentum.

Hudson, Asia's largest executive recruitment and human capital solutions provider, with offices in Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo, recently held a discussion on the issue of diversity with human resources (HR) directors, and concluded that Hong Kong, like the rest of Asia, is not exactly bending over backwards to jump on the diversity bandwagon. Neither are governments. With the exception of Australia, there is no diversity legislation at all in the Asia-Pacific region.

But is it really necessary?

'It is interesting to see how so many multinationals have strong diversity initiatives worldwide, yet currently in Asia little is practised or implemented,' said Shook Liu, HR consultant at Hudson, who organised the discussion.

Underlining her point, even though most fellow HR directors she canvassed worked locally for multinationals, only one had ever been asked to explore the diversity of staff in Asia - and that role was 'prematurely cut short as there was not enough social awareness to help drive the initiative forwards from a corporate perspective'. This was not surprising given that, in terms of race and nationality, at least, Hong Kong's workforce is as multicultural as in any cosmopolitan city.

As Hudson's general manager Erika Morton said: 'It's not an issue here in the same way that it is in the US or Australia, where it is driven by legislative requirements. In the United States, you can risk losing a government contract, but there are no legal requirements in Hong Kong. But then we don't have the same cultural issues.'

The US has its historical and more recent race and ethnic issues; Australia its aboriginal one. But Ms Morton noted: 'Those elements are just not here in Hong Kong. The city is not exactly a role model, but by and large there is an acceptable level of diversity in the workforce already - at least from a racial point of view.'

However, just because Hong Kong is a melting pot of nationalities, diversity cannot necessarily be overlooked - if only because the definition is extending.

Ms Liu noted that HR directors in Hong Kong were 'loosely promoting inclusion dimensions in the creation of a diverse workforce in the form of local management versus expatriate management, ethnicity, gender and the inclusion of individuals with physical disabilities'.

But Bob Goodman, the chairman of Hudson Human Capital Solutions, said: 'Frequently, when talking about diversity at the first level, quite often we are referring to visible differences; the mix of people in organisations. For example, this could be in the form of gender or physical ability.

'However, today, as companies are becoming more sophisticated about how they look at diversity, issues such as family status, nationality, sexual orientation and educational skill sets also come into play.'

There were two bottom lines to the issue, he said. First, companies were ultimately in competition for customers. The challenge was therefore to build a workforce reflecting that customer base. Only then, so the theory goes, could a company hope to truly understand its customers - and hence provide them with the products they wanted to buy.

The second bottom line was a question of talent. The working population was ageing, for example, and in many countries the female population was growing faster than the male population.

So, unless HR practitioners diversified the employee base not only in terms of physical ability and race, but also gender and age, 'we will be missing out on some of the best talent in the market place', Mr Goodman said.

Billy Dexter, Hudson's diversity specialist in the US, said: 'Recruiting, retaining and fully taking advantage of the skills and perspectives of the right mix of people is a critical success factor in the 21st century.

'Changing demographics, emerging markets and new buying trends all point to the need for more diverse workforces, suppliers and markets. To sustain a culture of success, companies need to incorporate the concept of diversity into every operation, system and process. No business decision should be made without the input of diverse perspectives, or without serious consideration of how it will affect diverse constituencies.'

This may sound over the top, but Mr Dexter's point that a workforce of diverse backgrounds, talents and perspectives are in the best position to gauge customer needs and identify ways a company can meet those expectations is growing in credence.

The manufacturers of what was once known as 'Darkie' toothpaste would have saved themselves a great deal of embarrassment had they recognised its racist undertone before a public outcry forced them to change the name to its present 'Darlie'.

More recently, certain banks might not be in such hot water over their attitude towards certain nationalities if they took a more 'diverse' view of the market.

Perhaps the ultimate bonus of diversity is simply overcoming the unfortunate management headache of being surrounded by 'yes' men. Sometimes it helps when some brave soul contradicts popular opinion and says: 'Hang on, wait a minute, has anyone considered this?'

One study by Fortune magazine of 500 leading multinationals has already demonstrated that those committed to diversity showed twice as much return on investments than those who 'did not have an interest'. As Mr Dexter added, in such a competitive era of globalisation, consolidation and new technology, businesses that ignored diversity or treated it purely as a compliance issue were 'positioning themselves for failure'.

Different Strokes ...

Diversity issue in human resources is extending beyond the US and Australia.

Multicultural Hong Kong already has an acceptable degree of staff diversity but legislation does not exist.

Diversity should reach beyond race and embrace health, family status, age, sexual orientation and education.

Ignoring the ageing population overlooks much talent.

Diversity is a 'critical success factor' - companies that reflect customer diversity in staff and suppliers have a better understanding of the market.